Kitchen Ranch

A Few Reasons to Love Costa Rica

 

While no country is perfect, here are some reasons I like living in Costa Rica:

• Ranked the happiest country on earth by the New Economics Foundation in 2012 (see HERE)
• The region in which I live, Nicoya, is one of the Blue Zones
• In 2009, the same organization ranked Costa Rica as the "greenest country in the world."
• The government recently announced plans to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021
• The president is a woman: Laura Chinchilla (BUT, it is disappointing to me that she opposes gay marriage)
• In 1949, Costa Rica abolished its army.
• Costa Rica offers exemplary and affordable healthcare (see HERE)
• Costa Rica enjoys a literacy rate of 96% and the educational system is free

You can look forward to a detailed post about trash which is a big topic of discussion here in the jungle.  With an outstanding organization like Nosara Recycles, I feel that anything is possible when a community is dedicated to the greater good.  This ambitious group has set goals such as: Eliminate the use of all styrofoam in the town, a will come to you and collect cooking oils to be converted to bio fuel and public events that create no trash residue at all (to name a few projects on deck).  

The subject of "Trash" should be on the table as an ongoing discussion we all have together, don't you agree? 

Decision Making Makes Me Hungry!

Power Outage

A mishap yesterday left 5 million of us in Southern California with no electricity for about 7 hours. The lunch guests stayed for dinner and more BFs joined us for night time grilling, salad prepping by candle light, home brew drinking and a late night swim in the pool beneath a gorgeous moon.

What an amazingly fun afternoon and night.....

 

 

Oh yea, What a whirlwind...

I do have good reason for being absent from this space. As chilled out Costa Rica was, returning has been as not chilled out. Every single second of my time has been spent. While in Costa Rica, the husband and I opened Pandora's box of sorts...

We currently live about a 15 minutes drive from San Diego city center. I suppose it is the suburbs-although this neighborhood offers a lot more character than the image that springs to my mind when I utter the word suburb. We moved out here because as our family grew we yearned for more space.  And I always wanted chickens. Here we are 3 years later and yearning for a more walkable living situation. We decided in Costa Rica we would sell our red house in the suburbs and renovate the 700 square foot home in the city.

Fun right?

Super fun, planning is well under way, the red house is on the market... then yesterday.Yesterday has ruined everything.

A sunny day and all 3 kids make their exit after breakfast into the backyard and do not come in until dinner.

REALLY? Can I REALLY move into a house with no yard and these 3 kids that love the outside so?

Torn, really torn.

 

Taco Politics...

Interesting study about the politics of a street taco: HERE

A Take on the Politics of Food

Important article: New York Times Magazine